Last week in Aspen, Colo., the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Gina McCarthy, spoke about how climate change could permanently impact winter sports. Just days prior, the Senate almost unanimously acknowledged climate change was real.

McCarthy addressed a crowd of about two dozen people Friday at the base of Aspen Mountain during the Winter X-Games with SkiCo CEO Mike Kaplan. Olympic athletes Alex Deibold and Gretchen Bleiler were also present, the Aspen Daily News reported.

McCarthy lauded Kaplan’s company for their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and tackle climate change. “It’s a big, base-bottom deal for our economy,” she said. “So let’s get off our butts, let’s work together, let’s start taking action. These guys are going to reach the young people. I’m going to keep yapping at the older ones, and someone’s going to get the middle, and we are going to make things happen.”

“We need to take action, not tomorrow, but today,” McCarthy continued. “Climate change does threaten skiing, it does threaten snowboarding, it does threaten winter recreation as we know it.”

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McCarthy’s statements were sandwiched between two key events. Last Wednesday, the Senate voted 98-1 that “climate change is real and not a hoax” as part of an amendment to the Keystone XL pipeline bill. Only Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., voted no.

The other event was snowstorm Juno, which swept through the northeast Monday and Tuesday, particularly in Long Island, N.Y., and New England, with accumulations over two feet, according to The Weather Channel. Travel bans were lifted and public transit was restored in New Jersey and New York City Tuesday after forecasts were overstated in those areas, WABC-TV noted.

Still, along with schools and stores shutting down, mail service in Connecticut, Rhode Island, parts of Massachusetts, and Long Island was cancelled Tuesday as a result, The Associated Press reported.